Hello Namib Desert
I’ve made it to Africa! After multiple flight delays and two overnight stops, I landed in Windhoek, Namibia on Thursday. Today I’m writing from Dead Valley Lodge, Sesriem, looking south west across wheat-coloured grasslands with purple mountains in the distance, an acacia tree outside my “tent’, and the odd oryx ambling by.
A little more context. On Thursday evening I stayed at Galton House, a private guest house in Windhoek, and a great place to stay - very comfortable, good food and lovely people. At 8am on Friday, Taedza (Mr T), my guide for the next 10 days, arrived at Galton House and provided an excellent overview of where we were going, with maps and useful information. and packed our gear into his 6 seater 4WD.
He packed our gear into his 6 seater 4WD, and we wre soon on the road at around 8:30am, heading south west towards Sossusvlei. It’s about 350km, mostly on gravel roads that send stones flying under the car and creating quite a racket inside the car. What an amazing way to see Nambia unfold, with Mr T spotting birds, stopping for us to take photos and providing lots of great info.
Windhoek is at 1,655m (5,430 feet) and Sossusvlei 790m (2,600 feet). So after driving for about 4 hours, we rounded a corner and the most amazing escarpment appeared ahead. The high central South African plateau ends here and the Namib Desert was in front of us. A steep road, with extraordinary hairpin bends took as down 1,500 feet or so, and we were now on gravel roads with farms and hunting properties on either side.
With the change in terrain we saw more mammals, as well as birds. Oryx and springbok were suitably wary of us, but were great to see! Sadly no giraffe (they are in that area but were shy it seems), but hopefully they’ll show themselves in Botswana and Zambia.
As we drove on towards the Namib Desert, Mr T would point out masses of grasses hanging down from tree branches. These are nests “built” amongst the branches by Sociable Weaver birds; they nest together with others – a bit like a bird apartment complex. We stopped at one that happened to be beside a nearby sign that informed us that we were about to cross the Tropic of Capricorn – this time going south.
We arrived at Dead Valley Lodge at around 4pm, and I was shown to my “tent” – I’m using inverted commas because the only thing that resembles a tent with this accommodation, is that the walls are canvas. It’s large with room for a Queen sized bed, large lounge area and a desk. A beautiful timber and metal chandelier hangs from the peak of the tent.
As I write, the sun is beating down outside and the aircon is on inside! The canvas walls have fly/mosquito screens, so I have the curtains open and can watch for wandering oryx and birds flying by, as I listen to my Spotify jazz playlist. So nothing to complain about here!
Location on Map: LINK